BOSS KELOID
Boss Keloid have evolved out of the doom scene that bore them to become one of the UK’s most mind-bending young bands. Prepare for a head trip...
We find out why one of doom’s most hotly tipped bands decided to bend their brains – and yours – into new shapes.
“obviously what we do is heavy and obviously it’s weird… I think it’s probably because we’re all out of our minds, ha ha ha!”
The most startling thing about Melted On The Inch, the new album from Boss Keloid, is how it sounds like nothing you have ever heard. Shortly to be released via the increasingly essential Holy Roar camp, it’s precisely the kind of deeply eccentric artistic statement the metal world needs. From its brilliantly peculiar artwork and mischievously unfathomable songtitles (Peykruve? Tarku Shavel? Nope, us neither!) to the songs’ audacious blend of prog, doom, psychedelia and plenty more besides, it’s a funny, surprising, absorbing and occasionally moving piece of work. With all due respect, it really doesn’t sound like the work of five affable, hirsute gentlemen from Greater Manchester. But then, as cheerfully down-toearth guitarist and co-founder Paul Swarbrick explains, once the weirdness bug gets you, there’s no going back…
“We really believe in that ‘prog’ spirit – the idea that music can be anything,” he states. “We’re not trying to make weird sounds for the sake of it. That would be contrived. We don’t want to write something we’ve already heard, so we challenge ourselves every time. At the start, I had a very narrow vision, but it’s blossomed into something else entirely. We’re just confident. Collectively, we’re strong, we’re all best mates. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we’ve got a real passion for music, we believe in what we’re doing and we’re incredibly proud of this record.”
Formed in 2009 by Paul and his bassist brother Adam, Boss Keloid never really fitted into standard ideas of what a doom or stoner band should sound like, despite being named after an Iron Monkey song. Paul admits that the band’s early material was a relatively one-dimensional take on the sludge metal blueprint, but even on 2013 debut album The Calming Influence Of Teeth there were signs that something unhinged and potentially revolutionary was going on.
By the time the band released the widely acclaimed Herb Your Enthusiasm in 2016, Boss Keloid sounded very much the finished article: bombastic, bearded and riffy enough to keep the doom faithful on board, but audibly veering off on a variety of unexpected but bizarrely successful tangents, all greatly enhanced by the soaring, full-throated vocals of towering frontman Alex Hurst. Multiply that evolutionary step tenfold and Melted On The Inch is the jaw-dropping result. Paul knows his band have delivered something a bit special.
“The high point of our career so far was being in the studio and hearing the finished album for
“the alBum could Be aBout maKing the perfect cheese on toast”
BELIEVE US WHEN WE SAY BOSS KELOID ARE STRANGE
the first time,” he beams. “We’ve played at Bloodstock and Desertfest and done loads of cool stuff, but that was the moment. We hope people will dig it, but the main thing is that we’re all really proud of it. The guys at Holy Roar totally get the strangeness in our music and it fits with their ethos, too. It’d be great to have some success with the album, but we feel pretty successful already, to be honest.”
fully independent until signing with Holy Roar, Boss Keloid have done things their own way since day one, almost existing in a vacuum away from the broader scene that has unequivocally embraced them. Paul talks excitedly about obsessing over the details of the new album and how the band’s core aim was to present a complete package, with artwork, lyrics and music combining to make Melted On The Inch feel more like a holistic experience than just a bunch of cool songs.
While he admits that it didn’t work out quite as he’d planned (“The themes that run through the album have nothing to do with the songtitles or the album title, and I think that’s a good thing!” he laughs), Melted… does feel like the perfect soundtrack to a hypnotic, psychedelic journey that doesn’t really make a great deal of sense.
“There’s an element of escapism in it, absolutely,” says Paul. “Psychedelia is a state of mind and a vibe. It’s also about the surrealist aspects of that. It translates into the artwork and the weirdness of the songtitles, but most importantly into the music itself. It all has a certain enigmatic quality to it. When I was growing up, bands like Kyuss had a certain mystique about them – they didn’t give too much away. That’s where we’re coming from, too, so I’m not going to tell you exactly what it all means, ha ha ha!”
But is there any chance you could explain the album title, at least?
“I can try!” he laughs. “Melted On The Inch could mean a number of things, but from my point of view it’s principally about marginal gains, pushing yourself creatively every time, experimenting, challenging and growing with each other as musicians. Mind you, that doesn’t really explain the title, does it? Well, it could also be about making the perfect cheese on toast.”
To add yet more intrigue and mystery to the Melted On The Inch experience, Boss Keloid have graced their new record with one of the most distinctive pieces of artwork you will see all year. on first glance, some kind of psychedelic fractal rendered in frictionless plastic, it is every bit as odd and bewitching as the music it was chosen to represent.
“I don’t know what it is either, if I’m honest,” Paul grins. “These Australian artists called Pip & Pop made this strange sweetie landscape sculpture and we’ve used photos from that and manipulated them. loosely speaking, the theme of the album is evolution and nurturing creativity, so on the cover you can see the big pod is opening up into the sky but you don’t get to see what’s in the pod and being released. It’s just a cool-looking piece of sculpture, really.
It’s got a strange quality to it. It doesn’t suggest any particular type of music either, so we’re proudly keeping it enigmatic!”
Many of metal’s finest moments have come when bands have embraced their inner weirdo and taken a risk or two. For Boss Keloid, weirdness is a natural state and total musical freedom is the only show in town. In a world where Mastodon, Tool and opeth are all chartbothering icons, who says that the next big, barking mad thing can’t come from Wigan?
“For all of us, this is our main priority in life – to keep writing and to keep this going until, maybe, we finally lose our inspiration,” Paul concludes. “The whole process is exciting, seeing how we can do things differently and not repeat what we’ve done. Maybe we’ll write an acoustic pop record next. everything’s a blank canvas. Who knows where we’ll end up?”
Melted On the Inch IS OUT ON APRIL 27
VIA HOLY ROAR